Model BTM Standalone BESS participating in utility programs

Hi Paul,
I am trying to model a 2 MW BTM battery that also generates revenue from ancillary services and capacity payments from participation in demand response programs.

There would like to determine the revenue potential from utility bill saving (TOU arbitrage and demand reduction) and participation in the additional energy market and ancillary programs.

The host-developer model doesn't include the energy market functionality, and the merchant model doesn't allow for customer load. I would ideally like the battery to dispatch based on price signals as well as impact on utility bill.

If you could provide any help as to possible options for modeling this in SAM (whether natively or through custom code), I would greatly appreciate it. I am at a loss as to where to start, or if this is actually feasible even with the help of a software developer.  

Thanks for your help,
Ondrea

Hi Ondrea,

SAM does not have a financial model for this type of project, but there might be a workaround depending on your analysis goals. I need a little more information to see if there might be a workaround:

1. Does the project owner benefit from both the electricity bill savings and revenue from electricity sales and ancillary service payments, or do different partners use the different benefits?
 
2. What type of system is this? Is this a standalone battery, PV plus storage, or something else?

3. How do you want the battery to dispatch? Will the battery dispatch respond to both retail electricity rates and market energy prices?

4. How is the project compensated for ancillary services? Does the compensation involve cleared capacity?

Best regards,
Paul.

Hi Paul,

Thank you for your quick response. Please find the answers to your questions below. Please let me know if you have additional questions, or need clarification on any of the points.

1. The host would benefit from the bill savings and the developer would benefit from the revenue from electricity sales and ancillary service payments.
 
2. We would like to start with standalone batteries. However, we hope to model solar + storage as well as other generation technologies + storage in the future.

3. Yes, we would like the battery to respond to both retail electricity rates and market prices. In general, each time increment should have a price/cost associated with it, and the battery should dispatch to maximize profit. 

4. Yes, we are hoping to model participation in the PJM Reg D/Reg A and ELRP programs which both involve cleared capacity.

Kind regards,
Ondrea